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Monday, May 31, 2010

I started new feature on School Counselor Blog called "Fabulous Find Friday." Fabulous Find Friday is a way for me to highlight specific resources and items I use in my everyday work as a school counselor and how I utilize them.

Each month I will give a recap of the Fabulous Finds featured for that month. Here is a recap of the first five fabulous finds:

1. Bubbles: Bubbles can be used in classroom guidance lessons, group sessions, and individual sessions with students. I have used bubbles with students of all ages. Adults love them too!

3. Balloons: Balloons are not just for parties! I have used balloons to teach deep breathing and about anger in classroom guidance lessons, group sessions and individual sessions.

4. Prezi: If you want to take your presentation to the next level, look no further than Prezi. Prezi is a new way of presenting. Prezi is easy to use, and best of all educators can get full access at no cost!

The Altec Lansing Speaker is surprisingly loud, which makes it ideal for use in a classroom setting. I have used the Altec Lansing Speaker with my phone, mp3 player, and laptop. I have used the speaker to play music and to amplify the volume when playing clips of movies or presentations.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Below is a guest blog post that I wrote for Teach Hub, a resource for news, recommendations and resources, by teachers for teachers. To see the article as it appeared on Teach Hubclick here.

Five Ways School Counselors Can Support You and Your Students

School counselors support the academic achievement, career development, and personal/social well-being of students. There are five main ways that school counselors support teachers and students: consultation, preventative programming, classroom guidance, group counseling for students, and individual counseling for students.

Consultation

School counselors have a wealth of knowledge about a variety of topics. Chances are, if you have a question, a school counselor can provide you with an answer or point you towards a great resource. If you are concerned about a student or even just looking for a new activity use in the classroom, school counselors can help. I provide consultation to teachers, parents, principals, and other school staff.

Preventative Programming

Preventative programming educates students about the topic or issue and provides them with ways to handle it. For example, for my district, we are planning a career week to prepare 8th grade students for their transition to 9th grade and beyond. We are hosting speakers about a variety of career topics and students are participating in a “Reality Check” simulation about education and income level. For our culminating event, students and parents will be invited to a career fashion show demonstrating appropriate attire for interviews and the workplace.

Classroom Guidance

School counselors can facilitate classroom guidance lessons about a myriad of topics for you and your students. I have facilitated classroom guidance lessons in classrooms and co-taught lessons with teachers. I have facilitated classroom lessons on career development, diversity, bullying, cooperation, rumors, and many more topics. School counselors can plan lessons with teachers in advance or facilitate lessons based on teacher or student need. Classroom guidance lessons are also a great way for your students to connect with the school counselor and build relationships.

Group Counseling

When there are multiple students experiencing similar problem or issue, it can be helpful for them to be in a counseling group together. Group counseling helps students build relationships and feel that they are not alone in their experiences. I have run groups on a variety of topics including children experiencing parental incarceration and anger management.

Individual Counseling

School counselors use many different mediums to work with students in individual sessions. In my individual sessions with students, I allow students to draw, write, sing, play, or just talk. I encourage students to do whatever they need to do, whether it is drawing or shooting hoops while talking. Sometimes we work on learning a specific skill such as deep breathing for anxiety. Other times we work on role-playing situations with puppets, such as a problem with a friend.

There are many ways that school counselors can support you and your students. When teachers and school counselors collaborate and work together students greatly benefit.

Danielle is a K-12 Certified School Counselor, Nationally Certified Counselor, and blogger at School Counselor Blog, a place where school counselors share innovative ideas, creative lesson plans, and quality resources.

Prezi is an exciting and innovative way to present information. I saw a Prezi presentation at a Response to Intervention and Instruction (RtiI) training. I was immediately captivated by the Prezi presentation! Prezi is unlike anything I ever saw before! The first thing I did when I got home from the training was a Google search for Prezi to find out more about it. I discovered educators can get a free Prezi account! Needless to say I was thrilled!

I enjoy using Prezi because it is interactive, cutting edge, and environmentally friendly! It is easy to share Prezi presentations with others, download it, or open Prezi on the web. The audience can click on links within the Prezi, watch embedded videos, and interact with Prezi without downloading anything!

I hope you enjoy my presentation on "Social Networking for School Counselors" utilizing this Friday's Fabulous Find, Prezi!

I will be presenting, "Social Networking for School Counselors" on May 21st at 3:45pm. My session will focus on the various ways school counselors can use social networking tools. I will share the advantages of creating a professional blog, creating a Facebook Page, using Twitter, and creating a Shutterfly Share Sites to communicate with your school and professional communities. I will teach participants how to blog, tweet, utilize Facebook Pages, and create a school counseling website using Shutterfly Share Sites.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Each week I will be selecting an item for Fabulous Find Friday. If you have a suggestion for a Fabulous Find, email me and I will try it out! Your Fabulous Find may be Featured on a Future Friday! ;)

Today's Fabulous Find is BALLOONS!

I use balloons in a variety of ways with students in classroom guidance lessons, group sessions, and individual sessions.

I have used balloons to teach deep breathing techniques by demonstrating how you have to take a deep breath to make a balloon fill with air. This can be used to teach students who have difficulty calming down when they are angry or anxious.

I have also used balloons to teach about anger management. In a classroom setting, I have two students volunteer to be my “helpers.” One student receives a red balloon (symbolizing anger) and the other student receives a blue balloon (symbolizing cooling down or calmness). I read scenarios aloud that might cause someone to become upset, such as "someone took bumped into you in the hallway."

Each time I read a scenario, both students blow their balloon up a little bit. As a class, we discuss what the student with the blue balloon could do to calm down or cool down. The student with the blue balloon lets air out of the balloon after discussing coping strategies. The student with the red balloon however, holds their balloon tight and does not let out any of the air in after each scenario. As each scenario is read, more and more air continues to be added to the red balloon.

After the red balloon is full of air, we talk about what the balloon symbolizes. We talk about how the balloon is full of a lot of anger and frustration and holding it in. I ask students what would happen if we tried to add more air to the balloon. Students suggest that the balloon might pop. I then have the student holding the red balloon let it go. The balloon flies around. Students find this funny. I explain that when we hold our anger in we can explode. Using healthy coping strategies to relieve our angry feelings allows us to feel comfortable and in control.

Monday, May 10, 2010

A man was walking along the beach when he noticed a girl picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the girl, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The girl replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Child,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the girl bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, she said… ”I made a difference for that one,” and continued down the beach.

~ ~ ~

I recently found a YouTube video by Jostens of the Starfish Story. Check it out below.

I have adopted the message from the story as my personal mantra. Anytime I am feeling like I am not making a difference, I remind myself of the Starfish Story. I also have a framed starfish in my office to remind that I make a difference every day in the lives of children.

If you are anything at all like me you probably juggle bags, lunch, keys, and other random items when you are leaving for work. I usually end up spilling coffee on the floor or myself when I am carrying too much.

I was at Target the other day and I spotted this travel mug. It caught my attention because it was pink, but after reading the label with the "no-spill" claim, I had to try it out.

I took it home and filled it up with coffee the next morning. The Oxo Good Grips Plastic LiquiSeal Travel Mug has a button on the lid that you can click to the down position to drink and click to the up position to lock. It seriously does not spill at all!

I have already been "saved" by the Oxo Good Grips Plastic LiquiSeal Travel Mug. Just yesterday I had three bags and a box I was trying to get out the door in one trip. I had my Oxo Good Grips Plastic LiquiSeal Travel Mug in the box in the locked position. It was rolling all around and fell over. Not a single drip of coffee spilled anywhere! You can seriously hold it upside down and NOTHING comes out. I am more than pleased with my purchase!

Do you have a Fabulous Find that you can't function without? I would love to hear from you! Your Fabulous Find may be Featured on a Future Friday, Friends! ;) Comment below, email me, tweet, or share on the School Counselor Blog Facebook Page!

Monday, May 3, 2010

During the second week of May our whole district will be hosting a Career Week. I wrote about this before in a previous blog post about the event Work the Runway. We have an event planned for each day of the week.

On Monday of Career Week, all of the 8th grade students in the district will be bussed to the high school for a kick-off Pep Rally. There will be a distinguished speaker from the community, the Mayor, the Superintendent, and students speaking at the event.

On Tuesday of Career Week, speakers from a variety of different careers will be coming to each building to speak to 8th graders about their career journey. We will be hosting all of the speakers at my school for a welcome breakfast then the speakers will travel to their speaking engagement. There will be four speakers for 8th grade students in my building. The students will rotate to each speaker.

On Wednesday and Thursday students will be going through a "Reality Check" simulation. Students will be given a scenario and then have to manage their money and be a consumer of goods and services. For example, a student might get a scenario that states that they are 25 years old, single, with two children, and they are employed as a cashier making $13,000 a year. The student must then consume goods and services based on their income level and family.

The week prior to Career Week, I will be visiting all of the 8th grade math classes at my school to teach students about managing a checking account and how to write a check so they are prepared for the "Reality Check" event. There is a really cool site geared towards students about managing money called "The Mint." The Mint has activities about how to write a check and how to manage a checking account or ledger. The activities could be used on a projector in front of the class or students could do the activity individually if they had access to a computer.

On Friday, the culminating event of the week is our "Work the Runway" career fashion show. I have put a ton of work into planning this event. I contacted local businesses to solicit donations for clothing for the event. I was able to get donations from Target, JC Penny's, and Men's Warehouse. I was also able to find a modeling coach who is willing to volunteer her time to teach students how to walk on the runway.

We selected 2-4 students from each building to participate in "Work the Runway." They will be modeling what to wear for an interview, what to wear to work (professional dress), what to wear for business casual, and what not to wear. I would like to have them write about their career hopes and dreams and dress up like what they would wear in the dream job, but I am not sure if we have enough time to plan that out. If we do not get to do that piece this year, we will definitely plan it in for next year.

I am still working on the getting the music and entertainment for "Work the Runway." I solicited a radio station, but I have not heard back yet. We will, however have photographers at the event. My fiance and my brother have volunteered their time and their camera skills to take pictures at the event.

Everything seems to be coming together. I can't wait to share more about this Career Week as the events unfold!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

I cannot believe it is May already! Eek! I am happy for state testing to be over so that I can resume my regular roles and responsibilities. I am so excited to start my groups back up. Students have been asking me everyday when groups will begin again! I am also excited for all of the great events that I have been planning for May!

A brief summary of my plans for May include: resuming my anger management groups, starting an after school program (CARE Club), planning/coordinating 5th grade transition, presenting at two different conferences, and planning/coordinating career week!

I am starting an after school program I created called CARE Club. CARE club stands for Character And Resiliency Education Club. I will be facilitating the group for fourth grade students. The group will focus on positive character traits and social/emotional learning. I can't wait to get started. I am planning some fun activities for the students. The program will be once a week after school for an hour. I will write more about CARE Club once I get the group rolling. I will share resources and activities that I use in the group.

I am planning and coordinating 5th Grade Transition with another counselor in my district. Students from her school come to my school in 6th grade. We are planning some fun and interactive programs to help all of the 5th graders have a smooth transition to 6th grade. We will be facilitating team-building activities, getting to know you activities, and allowing the students to have some unstructured time to get to know each other. We also have a nutritionist from a local grocery store coming in to help students make a healthy snack. You can read more about creating a smooth transition at your school in my guest blog post for the Really Good Stuff Blog!

I am presenting at the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association (PSCA) Conference, "School Counselors: Building Today for Tomorrow" at the Lancaster Host Resort and Conference Center May 20-22. I will be presenting, "Social Networking for School Counselors" on May 21st at 3:45pm. In my presentation participants will learn about the various ways that school counselors can use social networking tools. I will explain the advantages of creating a professional blog, using Twitter, and Shutterfly Share Sites to communicate with their school and professional communities. Everyone who participates will learn how to blog, tweet, and create a school counseling website. I am really excited to present at PSCA about social networking!

I am also planning and hosting Career Week events with other counselors in my district. See my post on Monday for updates on Career Week and Work the Runway!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

A reader inquired about how to find graduate school programs for school counseling outside of the United States.

Q: I am in Indonesia and planning to pursuit my Master Degree major in Counseling and Guidance. I know your e-mail from the School Counselor blog :) I have several questions here, Do you know any good Universities in Taiwan, German, and Australia that have Counseling and Guidance as one of the Major? Do you have any Study Plan for Counseling and Guidance, that i can see as my reference?

A: I have looked on the Internet for schools that are in Taiwan, Germany and Australia. It was difficult to find anything. I did not find any schools specifically. I found the Australian Guidance and Counseling Association. They may be able to give you more information about programs in Australia. I would recommend emailing someone in that organization and asking them if they know of School Counseling Programs in Australia.

There is a website called GradSchools.com that has a searchable database of schools all over the world. Unfortunately, I was not able to find any graduate schools for school counseling in the countries you specified.

There is also an agency that monitors standards of school counseling and other programs called CACREP.CACREP Stands for Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. There are many reasons to choose a CACREP accredited program, but the main reason I recommend choosing a CACREP accredited program is because CACREP programs must meet standards set by the profession. For more information about CACREP, see my post Navigating Graduate School for School Counseling.

I hope this post has given you some information about how to continue your search for graduate schools with school counseling programs outside the United States.

Does anyone else have information about finding graduate schools for school counseling outside of the United States? I would love to hear from you to answer this question further. Comment below, email me, tweet, or share on the School Counselor Blog Facebook Page!

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About the Author

I am a middle school counselor and founder of School Counselor Blog, a place where school counselors share innovative ideas, creative lessons, and quality resources! I am a doctoral candidate in the Counselor Education and Supervision program at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA.